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U.S. Assisting Paris on Mystery Drones; FBI Arrests 3 Men Trying to Aid, Join ISIS; Experts Examine Bullets in Hernandez Case; Southwest Airlines Grounds Planes over Safety Checks; NYPD News Conference Expected for ISIS-Related Arrests

Aired February 25, 2015 - 14:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back.

The U.S. Secret Service is now assisting French officials as they try to pin down who is behind those mysterious drones that have been potted now the last two nights hovering above Paris landmarks. Five drones were seen Monday night over the U.S. embassy, the Eiffel Tower, other sites. And then again last night, drones buzzed over several high-profile areas again, including a military museum and two old city (ph) gates.

Now, Michelle Kosinski is joining us from the White House.

Michelle, we just learned that three al Jazeera staff members in Paris have been arrested by Paris police for flying a drone. Is there any connection between these journalists and these incidents over the past two days?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the information is just coming out now, but we heard from the prosecutor there in Paris who said, no, that it's unconnected. And when that information first broke, that the three journalists had been arrested for flying a drone, we thought that was strange if they were the culprits for the last two nights of drone flying since al Jazeera had been actively reporting on the fact that these mystery drones were spotted. But it looks like they were doing this as part of their story because, according to the info that's coming out of Paris, one of the journalists was flying the drone, one was filming it and the other one was watching. So it looks like they were doing this on their own in a separate part of the city near a park.

What is still a mystery is what's been going on for the last two nights. At one point there were five drones over sensitive locations in Paris. And now the -- you mentioned yeah, the FBI is working with authorities over there to try to figure out, get more information, figure out what that's about, if it is a threat.

CABRERA: Have officials said whether this could be terror-related? I hate to go there. It's on everybody's mind.

KOSINSKI: That's the obvious question. You're right, nobody is going there at this point. Right now, it seems to be a mystery. What's known about drones like this is that they're lightweight. They can't carry a big load. You know, such as explosives. They don't go very far. They don't go very high. So the threat that experts are talking about surrounding this is pretty minimal. That's not to say that there couldn't be some destructive plans around these at some point in the future. It's really unknown what the point was of flying these things all around the same time over sensitive locations. I mean, we're curious to hear in the end if it's solved, who has been doing this and why, especially since it is illegal to fly these things over Paris at night. During the day, you can fly them but you need a permit. There's been no indication of who has been doing this at this point -- Ana?

CABRERA: Or where they're coming from or where they're going, which is surprising.

KOSINSKI: Yeah.

CABRERA: Certainly, we'll get more details as this investigation unfolds.

Michelle Kosinski, we appreciate it.

Coming up, guns and ammo examined by ballistics experts in the trial of Aaron Hernandez today, but no murder weapon has been found in the case. Now the testimony of the ex NFL start's housekeeper is raising some big questions.

Next, three New Yorkers arrested, accused of trying to aid ISIS. One of the men caught at JFK Airport trying to catch a flight to Turkey today. NYPD expected to hold a news conference shortly. We'll bring that to you live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Now back to our breaking news. The FBI says it has foiled an alleged plot by three New York men to aide and even join ISIS in Syria. According to the court documents, one suspect said he was willing to kill the president, President Obama, if ISIS ordered him to do so. The other suspect arrested in New York was just arrested this morning at New York's JFK Airport trying to board a flight to Turkey and eventually go to Syria. The court papers said he considered shooting FBI agents and police officers if he was unable to get to Syria to join ISIS.

Joining me now to talk more about this, Bob Bear, CNN security and intelligence analyst and former CIA operative.

Bob, thanks for joining us.

How did the FBI track these guys leading up to this arrest?

BOB BAER, CNN SECURITY AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, normally, it works that they catch them on social media when they first consider turning to violent jihad. They go up on the internet, Twitter, Facebook. In this case, I understand that one was on a blogging site. National Security Agency follows that. At that point, the FBI has an open investigation and they start running people into this group and the main objective is to quickly find out how big the cell is. Is it one or two people or 20? They want to get them all before they move to arrest. Once they talk about assassinating the president, blowing up targets in Coney Island, shooting police, they pretty well have to move very fast. They could easily pick up guns and turn to action quickly. So it's all a question of timing.

CABRERA: Right. This investigation, we do know started over the summer. It's been ongoing for more than six months. What is that threshold for law enforcement to take action?

BAER: I think I would suspect -- and we haven't seen this for sure -- that they had a source close to these people and once they actually talked about -- once they had been turned away or couldn't get to Syria, at that point, they were probably considering making attacks in the United States and the FBI moved very quickly. It's always a balancing act for the FBI. Do you let the investigation run on for years or move quickly? The FBI has gotten very good at it.

But what worries them, though, is the lone wolf who doesn't go up on the Internet, doesn't go on social media and simply picks up a gun because there are so many soft targets in this country. Any one of them would fit the call of the Islamic State. How do you catch those people? It's nearly impossible.

CABRERA: I want to read you a statement from the FBI assistant director in charge. It says, "The defendants looked to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, another form of ISIS, by flying to Turkey in a vain attempt to evade detection and several of the defendants planned to commit attacks here in America if they could not travel, including killing FBI agents."

They got stopped, Bob. What mistakes did they make?

BAER: Well, I think the mistake is they didn't understand how to travel without coming to the attention of the FBI. The FBI is monitoring the main databases for airline reservations, Apollo and Saber and a couple other ones. They can see reservations made to Turkey and you combine that with social media, stuff they're watching. The algorithm to say, hey, we got a suspect here. These people are not particularly cunning or clever. They are central Asians, one from Kazakhstan, two from Uzbekistan. There's violence that goes back to the '80. A lot of the guys are fighting with the Islamic State and al Qaeda.

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: You're saying given their background, it's not surprising that they could be drawn into ISIS's web of sorts?

BAER: Especially the Uzbeks. The Uzbeks have been carrying on violent jihad for so long. They have relatives in these groups. They've been watching this from the time they were very young. And they're very susceptible to the Islamic State's blandishments and recruitment campaigns.

CABRERA: Bob Baer, thanks for your expertise on this. On to another big story. Today, in the murder trial of ex-NFL star,

Aaron Hernandez, the jury got a crash course in semiautomatic weapons. The prosecution called a ballistics expert with the state police to discuss the .48 caliber bullets used in the shooting death of Odin Lloyd -- excuse me, .45 caliber bullets. The gun that matched the bullets, it's not known where it is. Yet to be found.

Joining me now, CNN's national correspondent, Susan Candiotti, who has been following this story closely.

This all sounds technical. Why is the testimony of this ballistic expert important and was the jury paying attention?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Ana. The jury has been very attentive throughout the trial so far. This is day 15. Some days are more dramatic than others. This was a day of important technical evidence. In this case, a ballistics expert brought on board to talk about analyzing the .45 caliber bullets and shell casings found both at the murder scene and in a dumpster. And his opinion is that they are consistent with .45 caliber shells, all fired from the same Glock semiautomatic handgun and that's the gun that prosecutors say was used to murder Odin Lloyd, and that weapon is still missing after all this time. They never found it.

(CROSSTALK)

CANDIOTTI: The other thing I* wanted to tell you about -- right. Well, other important testimony that was also shown this day was a photograph that was taken on the very same night that Odin Lloyd was murdered. This is a photograph of Aaron Hernandez, his fiancee and two other couples a few hours before that murder took place. They were all getting together for drinks at a bar in Providence, Rhode Island, not far from where Aaron Hernandez lives. The prosecutors brought attention to what Aaron Hernandez was wearing. It's a white hooded T-shirt, the same kind of sweatshirt they say that he's seen wearing on surveillance video in his home, again, the night of the shooting -- Ana?

CABRERA: I want to talk about more surveillance video. We know that Hernandez's fiancee he has been in court for most of the time. Wasn't there today. Or was there today but not in court yesterday. The jury did see a lot of surveillance video of her. What was in that video?

CANDIOTTI: Prosecutors say this is very important video that they wanted the jury to see because it shows the day after Odin Lloyd was murdered, Aaron Hernandez's fiancee, after allegedly getting a coded message from Aaron Hernandez, leaving their home and walking out carrying what appears to be a very heavy black trash bag in which, authorities say, she was carrying away what they suspect is this missing murder weapon. She has testified that she brought this bag to a dumpster and then, after that, she doesn't remember what happened to it. When she came back home, a house cleaner that works there described how she felt Jenkins was acting later that same day. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CARLA BARBOSA, FORMER HERNANDEZ HOUSE CLEANER: I saw her speaking on the telephone. I saw her looking out the window. I saw she was crying. She was nervous. And she was walking back and forth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: Now, Jenkins was not in court for that testimony yesterday. But she was back in court today, sitting behind her fiancee, both of them exchanging smiles -- Ana?

CABRERA: She's been given immunity. Will she testify, do you think?

CANDIOTTI: Well, she apparently has no choice. Prosecutors say she will be called as a witness. The question is, what will she say when she takes the stand?

CABRERA: Right.

Susan Candiotti, thank you for your reporting.

Up next, more than 100 Southwest planes grounded, not for weather reasons today, but because these planes didn't get their mandatory safety checks. Why did the airline miss these required inspections? That's next.

And more on the three men arrested here in the U.S., one allegedly on the way to join ISIS. We're expecting a news conference here in New York any moment. We'll have that as soon as it gets going.

Back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN.

CABRERA: Just 10 minutes before 3:00 in the east. We're watching the podium here to listen to the police commissioner of New York City talking about the arrests made just today involving three New York men who are accused of having plans to go help ISIS. One of them arrested at the airport just this morning at JFK. We'll bump into this press conference and take you there just as soon as it gets going.

Right now, I want to turn our attention to Southwest Airlines, forced to ground more than 100 of its jets today because they missed safety checks. Now, it was the airline who came forward and admitted the planes missed inspections and they were taking them out of service.

CNN aviation and government regulations correspondent, Rene Marsh, is following this story.

Rene, after all of the troubled plane stories recently, this seems pretty significant.

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION & GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS CORRESPONDENT: We're talking about a lot of airplanes here. 128 of the Boeing 737s. Again, you just mentioned, they missed the required inspection. This is a portion of the plane that they're supposed to be inspecting. It's the stand by hydraulic system, which is a backup system. It is in charge of essentially controlling the rudder of the plane, which is this back port. They did not get the scheduled maintenance for this specific backup part. This is what the airline said in a statement. They say the airline voluntarily removed these aircraft from service while the FAA works with Boeing and Southwest to evaluate a proposal that would allow the airline to continue flying the planes until inspections are completed.

So we do know that they did come up with an agreement with the FAA. They will be allowed to fly these planes for another five days while these checks happen. But as a result of this, you know, yesterday we saw 80 cancellations. Today we saw fewer than that as a result of these missed maintenance checks. It's sloppy paperwork. Sloppy maintenance as it relates to keeping track of when they need to get these checks done. But as you mentioned, they did come forward and now they are taking action on this -- Ana?

CABRERA: Rene Marsh, thank you.

Up next, any moment now, NYPD expected to give a press conference with more on the three men arrested here in the U.S. One allegedly on the way to join is. NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton expected to speak. We'll bring that to you live and we're learning new details about these three men, including plans to travel and hijack a plane. More on this when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Live pictures in York City. Three men arrested in New York attempting to go join ISIS in Syria, and they are facing charges of providing material support to ISIS. We're expecting to hear from police commissioner, Bill Bratton, any moment. We'll take you there as soon as he starts speaking.

In the meantime, let's talk about something really cool. My colleague, Bill Weir, has one of the best jobs ever. He has a new series coming out -- you've probably seen the promos -- "The Wonder List." He's traveling to beautiful places where cultures, creatures and the very land itself at a crossroads. They are places that could disappear in our lifetime.

Bill is joining me now.

Bill, this is incredible.

BILL WEIR, CNN HOST, THE WONDER LIST: Thank you.

CABRERA: When you explained that it was anthropologists that you wanted to do this series, explain what it was about, you said you have to go to Vanuatu. Explain.

WEIR: Right. For the first episode, I wanted to know if there's a Hawaii without hotels out there and Bali without burger joints. Are there still people in a fabulous sun-kissed place where there's plenty of food but only a matter of time before the golf resorts come in. This guy said you have to go to Vanuatu. It was so fascinating and beautiful.

Just to give you a little sample of the life they enjoy. They say we want to get away from it all. Let's show you how we go camping and food shopping. Here's a sample.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WEIR (voice-over): Instead of packing food for this camping trip, they brought bows and arrows for the shallows and spears made of bicycle spokes for the reef.

But the most stunning example of the bounty of the waters comes when they grab a net. Once it is in place, the catch is over in about 90 seconds.

(SHOUTING)

WEIR (on camera): My goodness.

(SHOUTING)

WEIR: Look at this. That's not fishing.

(SHOUTING)

WEIR: That's not fair.

(SHOUTING)

WEIR: When I fish, I have to sit and drink beer for eight hours before I get one bite. I guess we have dinner.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

WEIR: That fed us for two days. Here's the thing. When I got to that place, it's literally in the middle of nowhere. The cell phone signal was stronger than Manhattan.

CABRERA: Really?

WEIR: Those guys want hotels and resorts. They want to give up that lifestyle because they've seen how we live and they want a taste. So this is an hour about what we want, what we think we need, and the choices people making as the world just gets smaller by the minute.

CABRERA: It sounds educational, sounds informational and entertaining. You seem like you're jazzed by having done all this. A couple of other places? Any teasers?

WEIR: We're doing Galapagos in week two, going to India, see the Taj Mahal. We're going to do the Dead Sea, the Jordan River in coming weeks. An island in Greece where people life to be 100. They don't have Facebook and junk food. Who knows how long it will last.

CABRERA: Right.

All right, Bob Weir, we'll look forward to it.

Again, "The Wonder List." It premiers Sunday night at 10:00 eastern here on CNN.

There's another series. Taking a look at insights into the history of Jesus, "Finding Jesus, Separating Fact, Faith and Forgery."

Here's a look at that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: An unprecedented CNN event. He didn't vanish without leaving a trace.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For the first time in history, we're able to place these relicts.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And grasped a thing that changed the world.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the moment of truth.

ANNOUNCER: This is the story of Jesus.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The rock upon which the church is built.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An icon of scientific obsession.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This extraordinary defined and archeological piece.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do we really have here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why did Judas betray Jesus?

(END VIDEOTAPE)